Chapter 16
Yuan Chuyu listened to a group of men talking eloquently at the dinner table and was repeatedly forced to drink several glasses of wine.
He actually has a decent alcohol tolerance, but because his skin is prone to allergies, his face easily turns red when he drinks, making him look like he can't hold his liquor. He often uses this as an excuse to stop drinking.
Lin Liaoyuan wanted to tell the whole story of the Lin family's pearl, but Yuan Chuyu, being pulled along by him, showed no sign of boredom. He simply listened patiently and attentively to the repetitive ramblings with a smile on his face.
Until he started repeatedly mentioning his daughter's name.
"Zhuzhu made the decision; my daughter really has guts."
“She made all the contacts, acting first and asking questions later. Sometimes I wonder if I gave birth to the wrong gender.”
“You don’t know… She was such a pretty young girl, running back and forth to the site, attracting clients and investors, and she even brought in several of our core technical staff. At the time, we thought we couldn’t make a technological breakthrough, so there was no need to worry unnecessarily. But my daughter had foresight and said we had to make changes. Now… you see! It wasn’t worrying unnecessarily; it was being prepared for a rainy day.”
A free-spirited girl born with a silver spoon in her mouth, yet ambitious, unconstrained by labels, and unconcerned about others' opinions.
But... Yuan Chuyu glanced at Lin Xiangshuo, who was laughing along. Such a personality often leads to being unconventional and competing with siblings for financial power. He wondered what the Lin family thought of her.
Yuan Chuyu vaguely sketched out a rough image in his mind, and following the usual strategy of praising his children to please his elders, he made Lin Liaoyuan smile from ear to ear.
"She's still doing live streams. She just started doing this, and since we haven't found a streamer yet, she's doing it herself." Lin Liaoyuan was like the kind of parent who couldn't refuse someone's insistence on showing them photos of their children on their phone. He directly entered the live stream and shoved the phone into Yuan Chuyu's hand, insisting that he take a look.
Yuan Chuyu first saw Lin Langyi on this small screen.
Sparkling with jewels, bright and beautiful.
She wore a string of high-quality pearls around her neck, and her earlobes were adorned with symmetrical, uniquely shaped Baroque earrings. She also wore different rings on four or five fingers, which she was pointing out one by one to explain to the viewers.
When I mentioned the middle finger, I was responding to those disruptive comments in the live chat.
She calmly held up the middle finger for a long time, her mind working quickly, her explanations logical and coherent, and she was still encouraging people to buy her products.
That's quite interesting.
Yuan Chuyu found it both funny and frustrating, yet he had to admit that Lin Langyi, when she was angry, possessed a beauty that was different from the norm. This aggressiveness made every smile and frown of hers deadly, like a folding fan with intricate patterns that, when unfolded, concealed a cold knife as thin as a cicada's wing.
"If it's convenient, could we have a look around?" Yuan Chuyu suggested, and the group readily agreed.
He didn't leave the live stream. He kept glancing at Lin Langyi on the other side of the screen, and then he heard her bow down for 40,000 yuan and decide to dance in the live stream.
He was somewhat surprised. It's hard to live without being influenced by the opinions of others. Often, how one paints their face is judged by worldly labels, to the point that it ends up being completely different from one's original intentions.
Just as he had been following that line, carefully and meticulously playing the role of a "proper," "excellent," and "rule-abiding" gentleman, he earned everyone's praise and envy.
She is the eldest daughter of the Lin family. Doesn't she care about the discipline and constraints imposed by such status and rules?
The next second, a vulgar, borderline song started playing, and he only had time to see her first move before the screen went black.
Yuan Chuyu paused, then saw her sending a barrage of crying, regretful emojis, as if she were truly pounding her chest and stamping her feet on the other side of the screen, filled with remorse.
When you look up again, it's like a slow-motion close-up in a movie; all other irrelevant background and voices are blurred and indistinct, while the people in the live stream appear in reality like goddesses descending from the heavens.
He could only see her.
As if breaking through dimensional barriers, he saw her on the other side of the glass room, proudly announcing that she had made a net profit of 40,000, her eyes sparkling.
There wasn't a trace of regret in him.
Through the glass, his gaze was so undisguised that he hadn't even had time to compose himself before she looked at him.
He intended to give her a good, standard first impression, a routine he knew all too well.
But it seems he messed it up.
Lin Langyi felt inexplicably wary of him. She was even unwilling to walk alongside him, instead following at a distance.
Yuan Chuyu slowed down several times, thinking of many topics to start the conversation, but Lin Langyi didn't give him a chance at all.
Once they reached the core area, she suddenly bristled with thorns, gripping his tie tightly and refusing to let go.
Yuan Chuyu finally got his wish and met her gaze and spoke to her, but he never expected it to be in such a setting.
Her aggression resurfaced, and he knew she was actually giving him the middle finger back, just in a more restrained way.
She didn't believe his mask.
He did initially intend to take the reagent formula with him, lower the price first, and then cooperate—a common practice for capitalists to squeeze profits. But he didn't know what went wrong; his mask of invincibility was seen through at first glance.
Yuan Chuyu found it interesting, a little excited, and a little curious.
He felt as if he had become a pearl in front of her, being cut open, having the layers of elegant and dazzling aragonite crystal beads nurtured by blood and tears ground away, and then having the core grain of sand precisely dug out by her.
The grain of sand was trapped inside. It could hear footsteps coming from near and far outside. Even when someone stopped, they were drawn to the magnificent exterior. Then one day, the tightly closed door was knocked on. The person said that she knew there was actually a grain of sand inside.
Yes, it's just a grain of sand.
Fortunately, the driver gave him a chance to salvage the situation, and he was finally able to share some space with her. However, the problem was that there was an annoying third wheel in the back seat.
Yuan Chuyu felt that Lin Langyi was really amazing. There was still the luxury bag that she had thrown in the corner next to his legs. If he remembered correctly, this bag was worth about 700,000 yuan, not including all the accessories. Many rich ladies would carry it to decorate their image, but Lin Langyi just casually threw it on the carpet in the passenger seat.
But she's also driving for Didi, which is contradictory and strange.
He desperately wanted to talk to her, so he tried to find a way to make the person in the back seat shut up and disappear. He knew the passenger window was broken when Lin Liaoyuan answered the phone.
As the light bulb left, Lin Langyi told him that she wouldn't let such external factors influence her behavior. As she said this, the wide-open car windows and the car speeding along the overpass made everything seem even more carefree and liberating.
She teased him, saying he wasn't suited to drive the Lamborghini he mentioned in the back seat because tall people would end up with a chin strap, and then laughed and said he was better suited to understated and sophisticated cars like Bentleys and Maybachs, and even sports cars should be all-carbon black Koenigseggs.
Yuan Chuyu laughed along, a relaxed, carefree, and comfortable laugh. The wind ruffled his hair, but perhaps he wasn't sobered up at all. Instead, his drunkenness was rising, which is why he leaned so unusually towards her, asking her for candy and gently inhaling the pleasant scent emanating from her.
He wanted to tell her that he actually had an old-fashioned motorcycle at home that was suitable for going for a drive, and the commercial vehicle she mentioned was indeed his usual car. Before he could finish speaking, Lin Langyi invited him to go to Yingshan Lake another day, to go outdoors, to go boating and collect clams on the water.
He readily agreed, having never had such an experience before; it sounded like a delightful prospect.
He even couldn't wait to change his schedule with his subordinates. Originally, he would only come to Yingshan Lake in person the first time, and then hand over all the work to his subordinates. But now he has changed his mind.
Of course, his reason for convincing himself was that Lin's Pearl had accumulated a wealth of experience and should be given more attention to promote cooperation.
He was still reluctant to leave when he got off the bus. The journey was too short. He could only make an excuse to ask for her WeChat, thinking that there would be plenty of time in the future.
What sobered him up completely was that, within half an hour, he learned that Lin Langyi was Cheng Yanjin's arranged marriage partner.
He knew that Cheng Yanjin had never given up on this kind of thing. Zhuang Lan had been pestering him for so many years, but she still got nothing. So when he heard Lin Langyi's name from Cheng Yanjin, his heart sank completely.
He thought that they were both equally carefree, independent, and did things their own way, so it was only natural that Cheng Yanjin would choose Lin Langyi.
Everything was reasonable; they were well-matched and a perfect couple.
Yuan Chuyu believed that the relationship between Cheng Yanjin and Lin Langyi was unwavering, while at the same time, he belittled his own feelings for Lin Langyi to nothing.
He had never been attracted to girls. During his hazy youth, he focused all his energy on his studies and establishing himself in the Yuan and Chu families. The belated stirrings of emotion made him feel unfamiliar and at a loss.
He lacked experience, so he tried to approach it with a rational work attitude, which was his area of expertise.
He thought that this was definitely not love; he was just a little concerned, a little distracted, and that Lin Langyi was a little different from him.
He has been very self-disciplined and focused since childhood, and it is very easy for him to pull his attention away from other distractions. Lin Langyi is the same for him.
He can take back "that little bit" and nip it in the bud before it takes root.
Yuan Chuyu only informed Lin Liaoyuan of the rescheduling at 11 PM. Contacting a business partner at this time was extremely unwise, something only a greenhorn would do. But he had no choice; he had already come to this point after composing himself, and he didn't want Lin Langyi to wait in vain.
Before sending that message, he sat alone on the sofa, surrounded by silence, with only the occasional chirping of insects outside the window, as if announcing that summer had quietly arrived.
He sat quietly for a long time, his finger hovering over the screen. The moment he pressed send, a gust of wind seemed to sweep through his heart, reminding him of the wind that came towards him on the overpass, as if it would blow away his soul.
He told himself that feeling empty was normal, a natural human experience, and that he shouldn't take this feeling too seriously.
Yuan Chuyu locked his phone with a "click" and tossed it aside. Suddenly, he realized that the house was quiet, so quiet that it made him feel uneasy and uncomfortable.
He told himself that it was precisely because the ripples were forcibly suppressed that he felt regret and resentment.
Yes, it was just an awkward resentment, a lingering grudge, not love. It hadn't reached that point. He and Cheng Yanjin had completely different personalities; they could never fall for the same girl.
Take a nap, and everything will be alright after a good night's sleep.
*
Lin Langyi's message caught him completely off guard.
She politely and restrainedly asked him if he was delayed by traffic, and gently told him not to worry, as she had set aside the entire morning.
Yuan Chuyu had a lot of work-related news every day. When the seashell icon that had finally sunk down suddenly jumped back up, he felt like his heart was about to jump out of his throat.
What, didn't Lin Liaoyuan tell her?
Yuan Chuyu didn't want to reject her directly, nor did he want to have any more conversations with her. The withdrawal period was always a bit difficult, but as long as he got through this period and could socialize with her normally in a calm and peaceful manner afterward, then he would have succeeded.
He went through a whole roundabout process like an idiot before finally calling Lin Liaoyuan again.
Lin Langyi extended several invitations afterward, but he hardened his heart and refused them all.
When he refused, he remembered seeing children crying and fussing when they wanted to buy a model car or craving the fragrant snacks from roadside stalls, but some of them could say against their will, "I don't like it" or "I don't like to eat it."
Perhaps there is no difference.
Give him a little more time, and everything will return to normal.
But he was oversimplifying things.
Yuan Chuyu had physically distanced himself from Lin Langyi, but mentally he was being swept away by a backlash and couldn't escape. Her messages sank deeper and deeper into the list, to some unknown page or position. Yet, he found himself scrolling down inexplicably, finding her, and clicking on her profile.
He did such a pointless action so many times.
This is a very dangerous sign; people are becoming increasingly preoccupied with and imbued with excessive significance the things they spend a great deal of time and energy on.
He clearly understood everything, yet he never stopped engaging in such foolish behavior.
The conversation seemed lonely; it began with her and ended with her.
His birth mother loved reading poetry, and this became the only trait he inherited from her. He would almost copy Emranzarosi's line repeatedly, as if it were a punishment: "The more I flee, the closer I get to you; the more I turn my face away, the more I see you."①
"From all sides, I am cut off from reaching you."①
He really wanted to reply to her, to tell her that he also wanted to try making small gifts from pearls, which would be very interesting. But at the same time, reason was desperately preventing him from opening the door. The half-open door was not a rejection, but an invitation. He shouldn't do such a thing.
I saw Lin Langyi again at the Jinsha Mansion.
He discovered that the period of absence not only failed to help him clean up his "little thing," but instead it intensified and escalated. When he saw her again, it was like a relapse after a failed withdrawal, overwhelming and fierce.
Cheng Yanjin was not by her side.
Yuan Chuyu was somewhat dissatisfied with this. Although he didn't know what right he had to criticize other people's love lives, he could see her caution and apprehension; she was not at ease.
But another, darker, more sinister thought surged up: he found himself somewhat relieved that Cheng Yanjin seemed to have a bad relationship with Lin Langyi, and he felt genuinely pleased with this discovery.
He once again forcibly suppressed this dangerous thought.
He avoided her when handing out room keys, and she seemed a little surprised, but that wasn't her usual self. She walked up to him, approached him, and affectionately called him "Brother Yu".
The name lingered on her lips, causing Yuan Chuyu's heart to skip a beat. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, it was as if his secret, shameful thoughts had been laid bare in broad daylight.
She said, "I washed your tie and brought it to you."
It was such an ambiguous and meaningful statement, as if they had once had a close and intimate relationship. After realizing what was happening, Yuan Chuyu then berated himself for becoming so emotional and prone to overthinking.
He arranged for her to have her room on the top floor, the best location available, and hoped she would have a good time.
It was just fulfilling our duty as hosts.
In the elevator, she slipped the room key into his hand. That brief skin-to-skin contact threw him into a state of confusion. Before he could calm down, he finally received a reply to the message he had sent to Cheng Yanjin earlier.
Y: [You left Lin Langyi here alone?]
I'm free on May 19th: [What does it have to do with anything? Does she need her parents to coax her into going to school for the first time? She can handle it herself. Just keep an eye on her, I'll come back later.]
This doesn't seem like the reaction of someone in the throes of new love.
Suddenly, the weeds in Yuan Chuyu's heart began to grow wildly.
He looked up and caught a glimpse of Lin Langyi smiling sweetly at Xiao Pucheng. Her eyes were beautiful, and she always looked at everyone with a gentle, captivating gaze.
Yuan Chuyu stared at her for a while. Before exiting the elevator, he silently approached her from behind, getting so close that there was only a slight distance between them, and then he hovered his hand over the back of her hand and pressed the elevator button.
He gently surrounded her, and when she looked down, you could see a small whorl of hair on the top of her head.
Even at that near-touch distance, he felt a tingling sensation in his back.
She finally looked up and glanced at him.
Okay, don't look at anyone else, look at me, just look at me, okay?
Yuan Chuyu took advantage of the situation and asked her for the room key for the next room, thus brazenly sitting next to her, since Cheng Yanjin was not there.
Yes, it would be better if Cheng Yanjin weren't here.
Just as this filthy and terrifying thought arose, Chu Guanqian called. Yuan Chuyu arrogantly refuted him, with an innate sense of superiority, but he still rejected the theory of love, feeling that his slight attraction should still be within a controllable range.
If you have a slight liking for someone, it's only natural to show them some favoritism.
He discovered that her favorite dessert among all the desserts was lychee mousse, and that she could only watch from the sidelines since she didn't bring a swimsuit. The store manager of the luxury store would personally visit her home every quarter with the latest styles, making it very easy to get the goods.
He admitted that he had no aesthetic sense or experience in selecting women's products. In the past, he had left all these social interactions to his assistant. He only needed to know a little about the preferences of his business partners or target customers to tailor his approach accordingly. But today, he was in a dilemma when he met Lin Langyi.
So this is what it feels like to be nervous before giving a gift.
The store manager, as always, demonstrated excellent work ethic, always adding various fancy gimmicks and flowery recommendations to the women's clothing.
However, the moment the word "wedding dress" appeared, it captured all his attention, making him seem like a fool who could only agree.
But this particular piece happens to have mother-of-pearl sequins; who can say that isn't destiny?
He imbued these coincidences with a mixture of sorrow and sweetness, giving them a great deal of meaning.
She chose another swimsuit that he had bought to blend in with the others. Even so, when Yuan Chuyu was waiting outside the changing room, he felt a strange sense of anticipation, like when he was accompanying his sweetheart to try on dresses at a bridal shop and waiting for her to pull back the curtain.
When she came out, Chu Hong's incredibly noisy and annoying voice was still ringing in her ears, but Yuan Chuyu didn't hear a word he said.
Similar to the moment of suddenly waking up from a dream, he clearly felt his heart being gripped tightly and then clenched.
He held his breath, his senses went blank, and fragmented, extremely chaotic, erotic thoughts flickered in and out of his mind. He didn't think the dark red birthmark on her leg was a flaw; on the contrary, he thought she was extremely beautiful. The irregular edges of the birthmark looked like the tentacles of a jellyfish, and there was a lively and lovely jellyfish on her leg.
He really, really wanted to kiss that little jellyfish.
He went even further, wanting to push her inside, close the changing room door, forcefully press her against the mirror, and then personally peel off the swimsuit he had given her to wear voluntarily.
Lin Langyi's appearance seemed to have ripped off his upright and self-disciplined facade, revealing a filthy, chaotic, vulgar, and vile black fog that roared and churned.
He could barely maintain his composure in front of her.
Shi Tiesheng said: "You have calmed down but are still burning; you have become steady but are even more magnificent."②
No, no, that sentence shouldn't be used here at all, and it doesn't mean anything like that. Has his brain been fried?
His mind gradually cleared up after he was submerged in the pool water.
She said that the formation of the outer nacre layer of a pearl is not easy and requires absolute self-discipline, focus and pursuit. However, at the same time, the grain of sand inside can take advantage of the situation to rise up and turn the tide. The imperfection of the sand itself is not a defect, but the best choice for self-interest, an internal scorecard.
He and she must be of the same kind. She emitted even the slightest signal of being on the same wavelength, and he was eager and impatient to get closer to her.
Lin Langyi is an excellent swimmer. She takes competitive sports very seriously and doesn't care about collisions and confrontations during the game. She only tolerantly attributes everything to normal contact.
But Chu Yu was not.
Fair arms, slender legs, supple waist... Absurd associations arose like dark, damp moss, or like a spider web binding and entangling. He found it difficult to see her as just another ordinary person like everyone else. With his serene and refined face, he could only think of shameful and unspeakable things.
Yuan Pingran's arrival finally allowed him to barely revert to his usual self, but Chu Hong and Zhuang Lan's targeting made him feel that maintaining superficial harmony was pointless.
Cheng Yanjin wasn't there, so he had no standing, but what could he do?
He wasn't a fair and just referee wielding a whistle; he was inherently a biased individual with personal motives.
He had already figured it out. Since Lin Langyi hadn't fallen head over heels in love with Cheng Yanjin at first sight, it must be for the purpose of a business marriage. Now that things were still uncertain, as long as the marriage was canceled, he wouldn't have to be so hesitant.
The match continued, and Yuan Chuyu decided to play more freely. Taking a match seriously was a sign of respect for his opponent, and he planned to fight until the very end.
Until that ill-fated kiss.
Or rather, it didn't even qualify as a kiss.
She knew nothing at all, staring blankly at him with her clear, watery eyes, a hint of nervousness from having done something wrong.
Zweig said, “My heart is always tense and trembling for you, but you feel nothing at all, like the pocket watch in your pocket, you have no idea of its taut spring. This spring patiently counts your hours in the dark, calculates your time, accompanies you on your journeys with its inaudible heartbeat, and in those tens of thousands of seconds of its ceaseless ticking, you only glance at it once.”③
Yuan Chuyu sank completely underwater, a large amount of water rushing into his mouth and nose. The acrid, choking sensation of the water surged from the bridge of his nose all the way to his temples. Even for the two seconds he was on the bottom of the pool, he swayed and took two steps back before barely regaining his balance, as if he had truly returned to the time when he first learned to swim—
At that time, he couldn't control the water.
At this moment, he was also unable to control himself.
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